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The Problem of Energy Efficiency, Known As the Jevons Paradox

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The Problem of Energy Efficiency, Known As the Jevons Paradox Available online at www.worldscientificnews.com WSN 122 (2019) 218-230 EISSN 2392-2192 The problem of energy efficiency, known as the Jevons paradox Łucja Waligóra Faculty of Management, University of Economics in Katowice, Katowice, Poland E-mail address: [email protected] ABSTRACT Jevons paradox described the phenomenon in 1865. By the English economist William Jevons Staneleya in the book The Coal Question (The issue of carbon), which foresaw the gradual depletion of the British coal deposits. In general, this paradox states that the more efficiently we use a given raw material, the more its consumption increases. In the case of coal, the more effective use of energy contained in it with the use of steam engines resulted in an increase in demand for this raw material. The aim of the article is to analyze the occurrence of Jevons' paradox in economics and ecology based on the analysis of foreign literature. The article also points to the relations that exist between ecology and economics, on the example of coal mining in North America. Keywords: paradox, Jevons paradox, productivity, ecology, economy 1. INTRODUCTION Jevons' paradox analyzes are usually quite general. The authors focus in them on individual technological effects, not taking into account the historical context. Just like Jevons, they ignore the nature of industrialization. They also lack a realistic view of capitalist development, driven by accumulation. An economic system geared towards profit, accumulation and expansion will endlessly use every performance increase and any cost reduction to increase the scale of production. Technological innovation is subordinated to the ( Received 09 February 2019; Accepted 25 February 2019; Date of Publication 26 February 2019 ) World Scientific News 122 (2019) 218-230 same expansive goals. Everyone from flagship inventions of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries XX (i.e. steam engine, railway, car) was therefore a breakthrough that stimulated the accumulation of capital and he led to growth of the entire economy. Scale effects resulting from their development, from necessity outstripped the increase in technological efficiency. The preservation of resources is true in capitalism is impossible, the ratio of output / entry can, however, in the production process of a given good should be increased. This is because all savings are a stimulus for further investment, of course if there are markets available. This regularity applies especially to the resources of essential to industry - "basic products", as Jevons wrote. The aim of the article is to analyze the occurrence of Jevons' paradox in economics and ecology based on the analysis of foreign literature. The article also points to the relations that exist between ecology and economics, on the example of coal mining in North America. 2. NEO CLASH SCHOOL AS A PRIMARY NURT The neoclassical school is an economic school that continued the main idea of the classical school in the free market trend. The creators of this theory believed that there is a close interdependence between the individual factors of production, because their volumes harmonize harmoniously in the economic process (Khazzoom, 1980). This adjustment ensures balance while fully utilizing the production potential. All claims about social phenomena should be reduced to claims about the behavior of individuals. This research approach is otherwise called methodological individualism. The most important economists associated with the neoclassical school were William Stanley Jevons and Alfred Marshall (Alcott, 2005). Neoclassical studies used the partial equilibrium method. The vast majority of models assumed excellent competition. The neoclassical school, also known as the Orthodox school, is one of the schools in the history of economic thought, whose origins date back to the 1870s, and its concepts are developed to the present. This trend is otherwise called marginalism and has become the dominant trend in the field of microeconomics. The most important representatives of the neoclassical school include such people as Carl Menger (1840-1921), Leon Walras (1834- 1910), and William Stanley Jevons (1835-1882). Between 1871 and 1874, they published three books that had an impact on the development of orthodox economics. "Theory of Political Economy" (Clark, Foster, 2001), "Grundsatze der Volkswirtschaftslehre" (C. Menger), "Elements de l'economie pure" (L. Waleras). However, Alfred Marshall (1842-1924), professor at the University of Cambridge, is considered to be the father of modern orthodox microeconomics. In his work titled Economics, he attempted to reconstruct the views of the classics of economic sciences. Marshall assumed that economics should focus on analyzing social and economic communities by looking at them in terms of the behavior of individuals in these communities. He also noted that individuals make decisions on the market taking into account all possible benefits and costs resulting from specific activities. However, in contrast to the classics of economic thought, he assumed that individuals in the economy primarily seek to maximize usability rather than wealth (Freire-González, Puig-Ventosa, 2014). Neoclassical economics, referring to the classic achievements of classical economics, argues that there is a close interdependence between the individual factors of economic activity. -219- World Scientific News 122 (2019) 218-230 In addition, in the economic process, the individual volumes are harmoniously adjusted, which leads to a balance with the assumption of full use of production factors. Thus, the price on the market is the size determined by demand and supply. In the nineties neoclassicals, with the participation of marginal analysis, developed the concept of extreme productivity of production factors. The new analysis mainly focused on how to share rare resources between alternative market applications. Other key concepts of that period include: decreasing marginal utility , maximizing usability, and interpersonal comparison of usability. Assuming the desire to maximize profit / usability, theoretical models were developed for households and enterprises, as highly abstract at that time. While the emerging models mainly concerned the demand side of households and enterprises, the supply did not find much interest in theoretical constructions. Neoclassical economics is also a trend in economics, also called subjective-marginalistic, dominating from the 70s of the 19th century to the 30th century XX (Madlener, Alcott, 2009). Achievements of this direction are min; development of the theory of demand , supply and consumer, creation of the theory of market equilibrium and the balance between global demand and global supply; introduction of differential calculus allowing for the study of dependencies between economic phenomena through the so-called limit values. The output of this trend arose simultaneously in three economic schools: the Anglo-American School represented by William Stanley Jevons , John Bates Clark and later by Alfred Marshall ; School of Lausanne - Mathematyczna, whose creator was Leon Marie Walras, and the representative was Vilfredo Pareto and the Austrian Psychological School, whose creator Carl Menger. The book by Carl Menger Principles of Economics published in 1871 revived the scholastic approach to economics. It was also a pillar of the so-called "marginalist revolution" in the history of economic sciences. Menger included three main theses in his publication (Polimeni, Polimeni, 2006): The theory of needs - Human are characterized by the fact that they still need something. All theoretical and economic searches start with the realization of this fact. Satisfying these needs is the ultimate goal of the human economy. Individual needs are generally transformed into general social needs. The theory of economic goods - It concerns the relation of man-thing. The thing is good if it has the capacity to meet the needs of the individual and is available. Goods are divided into those to which access is unlimited, and for economic goods that are rare and are in a certain amount. Economic theory of social institutions - this is an innovative theory describing social institutions. Hayek later developed this thought. Menger noted that social institutions arise as a result of human action and interaction, as a result of a social process consisting of various human behaviors. This direction has focused its research on what has been omitted by the classical economy, which focused on the supply , namely how the utility or consumer preferences can be translated into the demand for goods. The extreme usability theory complemented the theory of the market mechanism. In neoclassical economics, for the first time mathematics and econometrics have been applied, allowing for measuring, for example, such quantities as total domestic production and total income . An important achievement of this direction was the creation of the so-called Optimum Pareto, or the condition of optimal allocation of resources, which states that a situation in which no member of the community can improve his situation without simultaneously deteriorating the situation of at least one other member of the community. -220- World Scientific News 122 (2019) 218-230 This model, also called standard, explains the behavior of entities in economies. Assumptions contained therein determine (Khazzoom, 1980): rationality of units, actions based on accurate and complete information and unlimited possibility of its
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